Making a Name for ourselves – Pentecost

Fifty days after Easter we celebrate Pentecost which is a special day in the life of the church where our Lord Jesus promises and delivers the Holy Spirit to us. Now the Holy Spirit is an incredible gift which we first read about in the workings of creation in Genesis 1:2

The Hebrew word used here for Spirit is רוח‎ (Ruach) which can also be translated as breath. The same spirit that is breathed into humankind which animates us so that we are indeed created in the image of God. This is the same Spirit which God promises to give us and that is what happens at Pentecost. The descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles.

But I have a question and I am sure you all do as well. If God through the power of the Holy Spirit abides in each of us and God being all powerful is doing his work through each of us then what we should be seeing in the world is the Holy Spirit recreating us into the image of God right? Like shouldn’t we specifically be turning into the image of Jesus and the whole world should have been jesus’d out by now, right?

But this isn’t the case, is it? I mean you don’t have to look far within our very own lives or turn on the news and listen to the horrors going on in the world. It doesn’t seem that we have been “jesus’d” out too much does it? So, what is going on here? What exactly is God desiring to do by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives?

Is God not powerful enough to accomplish this? Or is it that we do not have the eyes to see precisely what it is that God is working through His Holy Spirit?

In our Acts reading we have this story about the Holy Spirit that comes at Pentecost, and we see this incredible gift of languages, right? Of tongues, we read that everyone from the known world at the time who was in Jerusalem could hear

But well before all of this in Genesis, we have a story about the confusion of languages which began back at the Tower of Babel. Which in a sense is undone by the work of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

So in the readings today what we want to understand is what is God restoring and what is God doing at Pentecost? And to get the full picture of that, we go back to the beginning and that is why we will focus today on Genesis chapter 11 and story of the Tower of Babel.

From the outset this story doesn’t seem like a whole lot of Holy Spirit stuff really, does it? But it is crucial to Pentecost. You see the people in the city of Babel, had their hearts and desires on building up a great city and a tower. As we read in Genesis 11 v4

Now the motives of the people who would come to be known as the Babylonians here is that everyone would flock to this new beut city and the tower is like a beacon. But they were building the city and tower because they feared that they would be

And to avoid that from happening the Babylonians decided to build this city which everyone could come and be in community together. In a sense they are working as a team to demonstrate how capable they are and see how high they could go.

Now this really doesn’t seem too bad, does it? I mean wouldn’t it be nice if we all just got along. Most people outside of the church would explain Christianity as “generally” this kind of tower of babel moment. What do I mean? where people come together and utilize teamwork without division to build up something great accomplishing something fantastic. It doesn’t sound that bad really, does it? These Babylonians are going to sacrifice everything in their own lives to create something as a community like a beacon so that everyone else is drawn to it. Maybe the inside of their hearts and their desire might not have been the worse thing. I don’t know. Are we any different though? Do we not have our own desires set on what we think it means to be a great church? But God looks at this Babel and says “yeah nah”. We got to put a stop to that.

So, what is going on here in relation to Pentecost? I think it is all to do with perspectives, in our own lives we do well to try and love our neighbour right? In this Genesis passage we read that down here on earth the people are building up this tower. They are building it so they are safe and secure and that they would make a name for themselves. So from their perspective they are doing something incredible just look at this tower! The tower is going to make it all the way up to God in the heaven. And God is going to love it and he won’t scatter us! There’s the fear. But God is above, Laughing I imagine, and he has a very different perspective, and he sees things from a very different viewpoint. He looks down and is like what is that speck down there? God says vs 7

As the Babylonians are building the tower they decide on materials.

So they make bricks by cooking them in the oven but what about this mortar business? The text says tar, we could translate that as bitumen.

Now from the Babylonian perspective they are building a wonder of the world something beautiful but seriously… Can you imagine what this thing would have looked like? It might be their attempt to become high and mighty to be seen by all people to make a name for themselves, but in reality it was dirty, messy, filthy and it stank.

You all know the smell of tar, right? think of a new bitumen road being repaved it reeks it isn’t necessarily a very clean and tidy affair and the truth is that so much of our “works” (especially ones by which we hope to be known by), you know the works to make a great name for ourselves we like to imagine that they are pure and good.

But the God who searches deeper who knows our hearts, God who promises to come and to take up residence within us sees all things for what they really are from his perspective. God knows our hearts and we know when we’re honest with ourselves and willing to admit it, that some of our best “works” well they stink.

Might be good from a far but it’s far from good. And there’s something about it that doesn’t smell right and that is the Tower of Babel.

I don’t think it was God’s plan to confuse the languages of the earth and spread the people throughout the planet in this way. But I do think it kind of makes sense a little when we consider the tower of Babel’s story.

I think when God sees in our families and in our relationships with our spouses, children, friends and so on that there is division and hurt, God wants to heal this he wants to work towards unity in his way and his time. Yet this Tower of Babel causes disunity. But see in this disunity something different happens, God through the power of the Holy Spirit in the tower of Babel is showing mercy by separating the people who cannot see the filth, stench, dirt, and mess of their own lives.

These people who simply can’t love one another for who they are and so they build a tower…But God drives them across the face of the earth and at Pentecost, we see a great reversal. God begins a new work, a work of bringing us all back together on his terms. Restoring us, reconciling us and renewing us.

But to the surprise of most he does it his way and in his time and we read about this in Revelation chapter 21

So they make bricks by cooking them in the oven but what about this mortar business? The text says tar, we could translate that as bitumen.

Now from the Babylonian perspective they are building a wonder of the world something beautiful but seriously… Can you imagine what this thing would have looked like? It might be their attempt to become high and mighty to be seen by all people to make a name for themselves, but in reality it was dirty, messy, filthy and it stank.

You all know the smell of tar, right? think of a new bitumen road being repaved it reeks it isn’t necessarily a very clean and tidy affair and the truth is that so much of our “works” (especially ones by which we hope to be known by), you know the works to make a great name for ourselves we like to imagine that they are pure and good.

But the God who searches deeper who knows our hearts, God who promises to come and to take up residence within us sees all things for what they really are from his perspective. God knows our hearts and we know when we’re honest with ourselves and willing to admit it, that some of our best “works” well they stink.

Might be good from a far but it’s far from good. And there’s something about it that doesn’t smell right and that is the Tower of Babel.

I don’t think it was God’s plan to confuse the languages of the earth and spread the people throughout the planet in this way. But I do think it kind of makes sense a little when we consider the tower of Babel’s story.

I think when God sees in our families and in our relationships with our spouses, children, friends and so on that there is division and hurt, God wants to heal this he wants to work towards unity in his way and his time. Yet this Tower of Babel causes disunity. But see in this disunity something different happens, God through the power of the Holy Spirit in the tower of Babel is showing mercy by separating the people who cannot see the filth, stench, dirt, and mess of their own lives.

These people who simply can’t love one another for who they are and so they build a tower…But God drives them across the face of the earth and at Pentecost, we see a great reversal. God begins a new work, a work of bringing us all back together on his terms. Restoring us, reconciling us and renewing us.

But to the surprise of most he does it his way and in his time and we read about this in Revelation chapter 21

God has seen our desire to abide in glory to be gathered and to no longer suffer division.

A city that you and I are welcome in, where unity is found, and division is set aside, a city where our own sinful nature does not muck up as it is not built by our very own tar marked hands. And God does this how? By two pieces of wood nailed together to form a cross. Then he places his one and only son Jesus upon that cross who’s blood is poured out for us. It is in the cross of Christ where the work of God and His spirit that brings us together to Him and to give us the true and pure desires of our hearts untainted by the sinfulness of our works, rather perfected by the life and death of Jesus Christ.

The miracle of Pentecost is not to be held up in a tower making a name for ourselves. We are now free from making bricks and mortar. We no longer need to build ourselves a tower for we have become the city where God dwells. He has done that in our baptism where he comes and names us each personally. We no longer need to make a name for ourselves rather God has given us a name. He has come down to our speck here on earth and got his hands dirty and adopted us into His family.

That is the miracle of Pentecost, God living, breathing, acting and working within us. And we know this because of our everyday situations, our very own circumstances. Our “pentecosting” looks like places of forgiveness and reconciliation. God’s Spirit his “Ruach” is what sustains and renews our world and lives. As he breathes out, we breathe in that very same spirit.

That is Pentecost.

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